QHS SING Isn’t a Choir Concert. It’s Something Entirely Different.
Inside one of Quincy High School’s most unique nights of the year; a fundraiser built on courage, community, and young performers willing to step into the spotlight.
It’s funny how different events carry a completely different feeling the moment you walk through the doors. Usually when you walk into a big choir or band performance, there’s almost this unspoken understanding in the room. People settle in quietly. They talk softly to the people they are sitting with. It can feel formal. There’s a certain gravitas to it.
Most choir concerts, band concerts, drama performances, and school events over the years here in the 98848 fall into that category.
SING is not that; SING is something completely different.
Walking into the PAC Thursday night felt more like walking into a small live music venue than a traditional school performance. People were talking and laughing right up until the lights dropped. Friends were waving at each other across the auditorium. Families were excited. Students were buzzing around.
There was almost an electricity in the air.
Then the lights went down, the first performer walked onto the stage with the house band, and we were immediately off to the races.
No giant intro.
No formal opening.
No explanations.
Just music.
From the very first song with Zoe Mata opening the night, it was obvious this year’s QHS SING fundraiser was going to be special again.
What makes SING so unique is that it feels personal. It’s not just a choir performing together as one big polished ensemble. That is not a slight against our large group performances, I enjoy those every time, but this feel unique. Something different.
This is students stepping out individually. Soloists. Duets. Trios. Small ensembles. Different genres. Different personalities. Different risks.
I’m always a little awed by the courage it takes to step out in front of everyone and lay your soul bare for all to see.
Think about that for a second.
It’s one thing to stand on stage with fifty people around you in a choir performance. It’s another thing entirely to stand there by yourself with a microphone in front of a packed PAC singing a song everybody already knows.
Some of these kids are covering massive artists. Sinatra. Radiohead. Florence + The Machine. Songs people immediately recognize. Songs tied to iconic voices.
That takes guts.
And these students absolutely shined Thursday night.
There were fun performances. Emotional performances. Powerful performances. Some songs had the audience laughing and singing along. Others had the room dead silent because the vocals were just that strong.
There were some familiar faces if you actively attend our arts program here in the 98848. Young people you will recognize from some of the great plays the high school does as well as the choir program like Juan Ferreyra and Ruby Gonzalez. You’ll also meet young performers you may not know as well yet, like Julianna Lambert and Jorge Salas-Ruiz
Each student brings their own style, passion, look and voice to the songs they’re sharing with all of us. With no introductions you don’t know what is coming next until they start performing, well, at least I didn’t because I didn’t recognize a lot of the titles in the program.
Honestly, part of the fun for me every year is the variety.
I’ll admit it; I probably recognized maybe 30 or 40 percent of the songs. Most of us tend to stick pretty close to the music we grew up with. I still listen mostly to the same music I listened to back in the ‘90s. Meanwhile my daughters recognized way more of the set list than I did.
It didn’t matter whether I knew the songs or not though, good performance is good performance.
There were moments where the vocals just hit you right in the chest regardless of whether you’d ever heard the original song before.
One of the standout moments of the night for me was a student performing an original song with just guitar and upright bass accompaniment. That takes an entirely different level of confidence. No famous lyrics to lean on. No familiar chorus the crowd already loves. Just your own work put out there for everybody to hear.
That’s brave.
The song was in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish, yet I felt the song at a very real level and enjoyed it immensely. That is the power of music, it speaks to the heart at a very intimate level and crosses all boundaries.
Maybe my favorite thing about the entire night wasn’t even the performances themselves.
It was watching the students support each other. It might just be the dad in me coming out, but I love watching the camaraderie of our arts programs.
Most of the performers sat together in the front rows while the others performed, and they absolutely erupted for each other all night long. Cheering. Laughing. Celebrating big moments. Supporting each other after every song.
You could feel how much they genuinely wanted each other to succeed.
That kind of energy changes a room.
The house band deserves a huge amount of credit too. Kylie Youngren and Riley Youngren helped anchor an incredibly talented rotating group of student musicians who were constantly adapting to completely different styles and setups from song to song. Moving on and off stage, changing instruments. I don’t think people always appreciate how hard that actually is.
One song might need piano and vocals.
The next might need electric guitar, trumpet, bass, percussion, and background vocals.
Then suddenly you’re shifting into something soft and emotional with acoustic accompaniment.
That’s a lot of moving pieces.
The PAC sound and lighting crews also deserve some love because this show is technically demanding. The instrumentation changes constantly. The performers change constantly. Running sound for a performance where the entire setup changes every single song is really complex. And overall, they handled it really well.
The lighting especially elevated the entire experience. It helped every song feel different emotionally and visually instead of just becoming one long blur of performances.
But the biggest thing I walked away thinking was honestly just how lucky we are as a community to have arts programs like this.
These students are learning how to stand in front of people and risk failure publicly.
Think about how rare that is today.
They’re learning confidence. Performance. Communication. Creativity. Courage.
That matters.
Those are life skills that stay with people forever whether they go into music or not. SING gives these kids a space to really step into that.
There’s one more performance tonight, and if you’ve never gone before, go.
Seriously.
Take the family.
Grab concessions.
Support the choir program.
Enjoy a genuinely fun Friday night.
You’ll laugh. You might get emotional once or twice. You’ll definitely walk away impressed by the amount of talent inside this community.
And more than anything, you’ll walk away reminded that there are some incredibly brave young people in the 98848 willing to step into the spotlight and share what they love with the rest of us.
That deserves a full room.
